


(god bless) the broken road

by dreamintrousers



Category: The Book of Mormon - Ambiguous Fandom, The Book of Mormon - Parker/Stone/Lopez
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Running Away, Slow Burn, also this is mostly just kev and con... the others are there but not as much, arnold and kevin are friends from high school, hell dreams, hurt comfort, its a mcpriceley fic you know what to expect, kevin is already kinda questioning religion in the beginning, nabu was a foreign exchange student and then moved to the us later on, rascal flatts..., there is no mission trip, tw for abusive parenting and such
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22853227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamintrousers/pseuds/dreamintrousers
Summary: ‘god bless the broken road that led me straight to you.’Kevin Price just turned nineteen and is ready to do something incredible. The problem with that is he isn’t sure what that ‘something’ is. In order to find his something (and to find himself), he makes the executive decision to move out and finds himself living on the road in an aimless road trip.Connor McKinley just turned nineteen and is ready to start a new life. The problem with that is he doesn’t even know how to start. He makes the executive decision to pack up and run away when his family is asleep and finds himself living on the road in an aimless road trip.
Relationships: Arnold Cunningham/Nabulungi Hatimbi, Elder "Connor" McKinley/Kevin Price, Elder Church/Elder Thomas (Book of Mormon Musical)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 17





	1. high school graduate

Graduation wasn’t anything like what he’d seen in the movies. If it went the way he’d expected, people would’ve been crying and hugging and congratulating him and taking pictures and so many other things. There were pictures taken, and a few congratulations, but almost everything else was about what he was doing next. What university was he going to, what was he going to study, was he excited to start school next fall - and so many other things. To tell the truth (not that his ego would actually allow him to), Kevin Price was  _ overwhelmed. _ He barely finished one thing and everyone was already expecting him to move on to another. 

Of course, he knew this treatment was all because his family thought highly of him. They were proud of him, even if they didn’t say it often (aside from his grandmother, who told him that every single time she saw him). They were so proud, they thought so highly, that they expected him to already know his next step. They expected him to already have his life goals in order. In fact, they probably expected him to go to some amazing university like BYU and to meet a nice Mormon woman to marry and eventually start a family of his own with. That was great and all, that they expected him to be the perfect Mormon poster boy, but Kevin wasn’t quite so sure he was interested in that.

He  _ wanted  _ to be the perfect Mormon poster boy, he did, don’t get him wrong - but he also wanted… Well, the problem was that he didn’t know what he wanted. He wanted something else.

Kevin Price wanted to do something incredible. He wanted to  _ be  _ something incredible. He wanted to die, in the future, knowing that he had accomplished something. He didn’t want to just go and be known as a family man that was greatly dedicated to his church and religion. He wanted to go down in history. He wanted the day that he died to be mourned by more people than just his family and a few friends that he’d met through church. He wanted-

“Kevin? Smile, please,” his mother interrupted his train of thought, wiggling her camera at him.

He quickly threw on yet another smile. His grandmother always praised him on his smile; what a handsome boy, perfect white teeth, some young lady will be very happy to be with him someday. It was nice and a good boost to his already too high ego, but maybe he was tired of hearing it from her. Was that a bad thing to say? Was it less bad if he didn’t say it out loud? His thoughts were interrupted yet again as his brother, Jack, wrapped an arm around Kevin’s shoulders and put on his own perfect-white-teeth smile. Their mother snapped the photo, praising them as she lowered the camera once again.

His mother’s arms wrapped around his shoulders from the other side, and she pulled him into an actual hug once Jack slunk off to go play on his phone again. “Aren’t you excited, Kev?” she asked him, planting a kiss on his cheek. He could feel the sticky lipstick residue remaining where her lips had been, and had to hold off the urge to scrub at the area of skin. “You’re a high school graduate now! You can move on to college! We’ve seen all of the letters coming in, you’ve been accepted everywhere that you’ve applied. That’s got to feel good, huh? Now all that’s left is to finalize a decision - have you done that yet?”

“Not yet, mom,” Kevin answered simply, doing his absolute best to keep a smile on his face. It was hard. He was tired. “I think I’ve narrowed it down to just two now, though.” And now he was just lying. Why did he do that? He was digging himself into a deep hole that he knew for a fact he wouldn’t be able to get himself out of, especially considering that he hadn’t even started  _ looking _ through all of his acceptance letters let alone making any decisions.

She smiled at him as she let him go, dropping her hands to her sides. “Your father and I both went to BYU,” she said. She’d been saying that to him all week. It was a hint - a hint that he was supposed to go there, too. He wondered what she’d say if he told her that he absolutely was  _ not  _ going there. At least, not without a gap year. Or five.

He nodded. “Yeah, I know. That’s why it’s one of my two choices,” he lied to her. He just kept lying. 

“You’ll love it there, Kev,” his father cut in. His father was a tall man of few words. Kevin always thought his parents were a funny couple, because his mother was a little shorter and was a lot louder. Maybe that was why they worked so well together. Kevin didn’t like to think about his parents’ relationship often. 

“I hope so,” he settled to say in response, with another nod. If felt like that’s all he’d been doing today. Nodding, agreeing with whatever someone in his family was saying. He was tired of it. He was starting to almost wish he could start high school all over again so he wouldn’t have to deal with all of this right now. Though, really, he doubted that he would be able to survive _ another _ four years of high school.

His mom patted his shoulder, before going off to speak with his grandparents. His father followed her. Kevin was grateful for that, finally having a moment to himself to think.

Tonight was the night, he decided. Tonight was the night that he was going to figure things out. He was going to do something incredible - and he was going to move out. He was nineteen, he’d been an adult for two years now, his parents couldn’t stop him. He could do whatever he wanted.

… He could do whatever he wanted.

\-----

Everyone else was nearly done with their dinner. Kevin had hardly even picked at the food on his plate. He was sure it was good - it was his mother’s cooking, her meals were always good, but there was too much on his mental plate for him to be able to focus on the physical plate in front of him. Nobody seemed to notice. There was chatter amongst the table, stories of things that had happened to family friends and summer vacation plans and whatnot. Kevin wasn’t paying attention. He didn’t care enough to listen. 

“I’ve decided what I’m going to do,” he announced, cutting off all other voices. The whole Price family’s eyes were on him, now, waiting. He wondered if he should regret this. He didn’t. “I’m moving out.”

“What?” his mother questioned.

“Tonight,” Kevin added, before anyone could try to stop him.

“Tonight?” Jack asked. Kevin couldn’t make out what kind of emotion was behind his brother’s response.

“You can’t move out tonight,” his father said, voice reflecting a mixture of surprise and disbelief. “You have to pack, and you have to find somewhere to live-”

“I’m packing tonight. I’m going to pack right now,” Kevin said, then shrugged. “I have a car.”

His mother looked worried. He hated when she looked at him like that. “You’re going to live in your car? Kevin, I-”

“I’ve already decided. So… I’m going to pack, and then I’ll say goodbye,” He cut her off, standing from the dinner table and making his way up the stairs to his bedroom.

Kevin didn’t even know what to pack. He started with money, his phone, his laptop, his chargers, and his headphones. Those, to him, were musts. Then, clothes - obviously. He packed all that he could fit into two suitcases, along with toiletries and items needed for health and cleanliness. He grabbed his old sleeping bag from out of his closet, and one of the extra travel pillows he’d gotten for airplane travel naps. Surely that was all he needed, right? Anything else could be bought with the money he had. He may or may not have stolen extra money from Jack’s room, too. It wouldn’t be the first time. 

He took one last look at his bedroom. He’d grown up there. This was the only home, the only bedroom, he’d ever known. It wasn’t his anymore. Kevin’s eyes landed on the Book of Mormon that sat on the side table by his bed. He stared at it for a moment in thought, before turning the light off and leaving his - not his,  _ the _ \- bedroom.

His mother met him at the bottom of the stairs. “Kev, honey, is this because of something we’ve done? Did we push you too hard?”

_ Partially. _

“No,” Kevin said. “I just want to. I think this is the best way for me to go about my future. I’m just going to take a gap year, to help me figure out what I want to do. Then I’ll come back and I’ll go to college like normal.”   
  
She didn’t seem to believe him. He didn’t blame her. Kevin simply gave her a hug and then walked past her. He waved to the rest of the family, who all still sat at the dinner table. “I’ll keep in touch,” he promised them emptily. 

And then he was out the front door and in his car with all of his belongings in the trunk. This was not what he expected to become of him as a high school graduate.

This was the start of something incredible.

Kevin blared the music in his old, beat up car and backed out of the driveway for the last time.


	2. runaway

_ *tw for brief mentions of conversion therapy & of weight!* _

Dinner had never felt so awkwardly silent as it did that night. Connor McKinley knew it was that way for him only. For everyone else, it was a normal dinner. Dinners in the McKinley household were almost always silent - unless his father was yelling at him for something. There was nothing to yell about today, however. 

He had graduated high school. His family hadn’t attended. After graduation, he had another dreadful ‘therapy’ appointment. His family had tracked his car to make sure that he went. 

Connor stared down at the food on his plate. There wasn’t much there. He hadn’t put much there. His mind was too jumbled to think about eating. 

Tonight was the night that he was going to do it. He’d finally talked himself into it, and he was going to do it tonight before he would have the chance to talk himself out of it. Tonight, after dinner and after everyone was in bed, Connor was running away. He already had a list of things in mind to pack. It wasn’t much, as he couldn’t take his car without his parents finding him immediately, but it would be enough to survive. He would pack his bags as soon as dinner was over, and then he would take a shower, and then he would pretend to go to bed. After he could be sure that everyone else had gone to sleep, he’d sneak out his bedroom window and walk to the bus stop. He’d already researched it - there was exactly one bus that ran a night route around his neighborhood. He would catch that bus at 11pm and would take it as far as he could. Hopefully, by the end of that route, he would be able to find another bus to take somewhere else. 

He didn’t know where he was going to go. He didn’t know what he was going to do whenever he got to his next location. All he knew was that he  _ couldn’t  _ be here for one more night. At the rate it was going now, he was almost positive that this whole runaway thing was going to save his life. He looked up from the food on his plate and around the table. It was still silent aside from forks hitting plates and people chewing, glasses of water being picked up or sat back down. He looked at his mother, at his father, at his four sisters. He wondered if any of them would miss him. He wondered if any _ one  _ would miss him. 

Chris would. Chris didn’t know that Connor was running away tonight. Connor had mentioned it before, but it was always some kind of veiled threat, something that both of them knew he wouldn’t actually do. Now he was doing it. He debated telling him - after all, Chris was his best friend - but then decided against it. 

Chris didn’t know about Connor’s home life. All sleepless nights were disguised as nights of too much studying rather than nights filled with yelling and bad dreams. The bags under his eyes were hidden with concealer he’d bought in secret from a drug store. Marks from ‘therapy’ were hidden behind smiles and long sleeves. Chris didn’t know. No one knew. If Connor told Chris he was running away, he was certain that his best friend would immediately turn to his parents. He wouldn’t have that. As much as it hurt to have to leave his best friend out of something like this, Connor felt like he was left with no choice. 

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Christen, his oldest sister, piped up. 

Connor nearly jumped out of his skin, not expecting the abrupt end to the silence. He felt everyone’s eyes on him. “I’m not really hungry,” he answered her, his eyes turning back down to his plate quickly. 

He heard his father scoff. “We all know he weighs enough to skip a couple meals.”

It got silent again. Connor knew that he was a healthy weight, he knew that his father’s words weren’t accurate and shouldn’t mean anything to him, but remarks like that still stung. Just like everyone else, just like always, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he sat there for two minutes longer before standing up, cleaning up his uneaten dinner, and going to his bedroom. It was time to pack. 

He grabbed his baby blue backpack from the corner of his room, emptying it of his school supplies. He started with clothes and toiletries, then his phone, charger, and earbuds. His wallet got shoved in his back pocket and, after a moment’s hesitation, Connor made a mental reminder to check for money in the kitchen before he leaves. Sometimes his parents left money in a dish on the counter - he wouldn’t be back any time soon, if at all, so it couldn’t hurt him to snatch it before he left. He wasn’t usually one to steal, but he definitely did not have enough money at the moment to run away and be fine. He had enough for a few days, at the most, but he needed enough to get away from here and to find somewhere to start a whole new life. 

A new life. The more Connor thought about it, the better it sounded. The  _ scarier  _ it sounded. He shook his head, hiding his bag under his bed for good measure, then slipped into the bathroom to take a quick shower. 

\-----

It felt like ten years before everyone was asleep. Connor slipped out of his room and stole the money from the dish in the kitchen, only feeling slightly bad for doing so, before going back to his room. He checked over everything one last time before pulling his backpack over his shoulders and carefully crawling out his window. He was out. The hardest part was already done. Now all he had to do was catch the bus. 

It was only 10:30 and the bus stop was a ten minute walk. He’d get there at 10:40, roughly, and the bus would be there at 11 - and then he would  _ officially  _ have started his new life. He would officially be homeless. Gosh, he hadn’t thought of it that way yet. 

But it was too late to turn back, and he wasn’t sure that he would want to go back now anyway. He put his earbuds in and played some encouraging music (aka,  _ I Got This  _ from Freaky Friday) as he began the walk to the bus stop. It only took him eight minutes to get there, and then he had to just sit at the bench and wait. He was scared. It was late, it was dark. Someone could easily come and attack him, if they wanted to. He knew he shouldn’t be thinking like that, but he couldn’t help it. 

When the bus finally pulled in, Connor was quick to get up and get on. There were only three other passengers, all quiet, to his relief. He went to the very back after paying the toll, curling up in a seat against the window.  _ Santa Fe  _ from Rent was playing through his headphones now. Maybe that was where he’d end up. 

Starting a restaurant in Santa Fe actually sounded like an amazing idea right then. 

With his head rested against the bus window, Connor let his eyes drift closed and he fell asleep. 


	3. freedom/money

Kevin Price had never felt more free than he did driving down a highway alone at nighttime. It felt surreal. It wasn’t like the kind of surreal where he was the only one on the road - in fact, there were quite a few other vehicles around him. It was a whole new feeling, and he absolutely adored it. There was something special about driving 70mph, music by his favorite band blaring, the lights from all of the other vehicles shining off of each other and the road. If this was what his life was becoming, he wouldn’t complain. He  _ couldn’t  _ complain, really. 

Okay, perhaps it would get lonely after some time. And perhaps he could get tired of constant travel. Oh, and eventually he would run out of money for gas. Shoot, he hadn’t even thought about that. 

His eyes glanced away from the road long enough to get a look at his gas gauge. A little less than half full. He had roughly four hundred dollars on him - some of it was graduation presents, some of it was his own, and some of it was his brother’s that he’d stolen. It sounded like a lot right then, but thinking about how he would need to use it made it sound like a lot less. He’d need to eat a few times a day. He’d need to refill gas on occasion (and probably relatively soon), and gas certainly wasn’t cheap. He was sure there would be other expenses. Freedom was nice and all, but it cost a lot more than he was prepared for.

That got him thinking. He’d need to get a job. He’d need more money. He couldn’t really turn to his parents now. He had a job, but he wasn’t going to be paid by them anymore considering that he was already a few hours away from home. In fact, he didn’t know where he was at all. He didn’t know where, or when, or  _ if _ he was going to settle down in a real house somewhere. Typically, jobs weren’t made for constant travellers. Unless he wanted to be a YouTuber or a photographer or something, he supposed. Like he had the camera and editing software for that. Like he had the  _ money  _ to buy the camera and editing software for that. Money, money, money. Gosh.

Kevin sighed. He didn’t want to think about this right now. He needed to focus on the road - what he was doing, what the cars around him were doing. He certainly didn’t have enough money to pay a hospital bill from a wreck. 

It was getting late - though he didn’t dare look at the clock, knowing it would make him feel more tired than he already was - and he figured he ought to start looking for somewhere that would be safe enough for him to pull over and sleep. He’d probably pick a parking lot somewhere, but he’d yet to drive by anywhere that had a safe enough looking parking lot. Kevin had left in order to start a new life, not to find an unfortunate end to his. 

He’d find something eventually. Hopefully. He was starting to get tired. Not tired enough that it was too worrisome, but his driver’s ed teacher had shown their class enough videos of tired drivers crashing that he may have grown to be a bit paranoid. 

As he suspected, Kevin managed to find a small hotel that didn’t seem too sketchy. He parked in the very back of the parking lot and moved to the backseat to sprawl out as best as he could. He figured it was kind of ironic, to go to a hotel’s parking lot to sleep in his car, but he wasn’t about to spend half of his money on a hotel room for one night. He made sure that all of the doors were locked, then laid back against the seats. 

If this was what freedom was, maybe it wasn’t as great as it had initially sounded. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter is relatively short, especially in comparison to the first ones, and i apologize! i’ve already started on the next chapter though and it’s going to be a fairly long one, so i hope that’ll make up for it :’)


	4. almost kidnapped / starting over

Connor rode the bus until it arrived at the station. He got off, slipping his backpack over his shoulders. He didn’t recognize the area around him, but he supposed that was okay. In fact, perhaps it was for the best. If he was somewhere he didn’t recognize, there was less of a chance that he’d see someone he knew - less of a chance that someone would find him and either send him home or tell his parents. The thing was, really, he wasn’t sure if his parents would miss him. He didn’t even know if they’d recognize that he was gone. 

He sighed, blowing some of his hair out of his face, and decided to just take to walking instead of waiting for another bus. It couldn’t hurt, especially considering that he was likely going to have to eat a lot of processed fast food for a while. He couldn’t go to healthier restaurants; Connor didn’t have  _ that  _ much money. He wouldn’t be able to cook, because he didn’t have a place to do that. So, processed meals it would have to be. At least until he could successfully settle down somewhere and get a job to pay for everything that went into healthy eating. 

Yeah, walking didn’t sound all that bad. 

It was a little chilly, but nothing that bothered Connor too much. He had a hoodie on, and it wasn’t too windy. The music playing through his headphones was upbeat enough that it held a majority of his attention, enough that he wasn’t too focused on the chill of the air. Good old Mamma Mia. Connor had always thought that musical was a good one to work out to, but he’d never actually tried it. He found now, though, that it was great to help keep up a steady walking pace. 

He wasn’t quite sure how long he’d been walking for. Long enough that he was hungry, which could be due to the fact that he hadn’t eaten at dinner last night and that he had yet to have breakfast. Connor walked long enough to find a cute little convenience store and bought himself a bottle of tea and a granola bar. After he ate, he found his way to another bus stop.

\-----

Connor rode the bus until he was the last person on. It was only around 3pm, but he figured that he should get off to find something to eat and to find another bus before the other one cycled through the same route again. He didn’t want to just go around in circles forever. He found a small, cheap restaurant to eat at and then was back on a bus by 4 o’clock.

Time felt like it was warped, but he couldn’t exactly figure out  _ how _ . Chris had texted him a few times and, although he felt absolutely awful for it, Connor had deleted them. His family hadn’t sent anything - not that he’d expected them to. It was a relief, really, to not have heard from his family. He wasn’t completely positive where he was, but he knew that he couldn’t be far enough away yet that it would be super hard for his family (or search parties) to be able to locate him. It felt like he’d been riding busses and roaming sidewalks for years, but also like it had only been a couple of minutes. Maybe Connor was losing his mind. He really hoped not. 

The bus was mostly empty. He wasn’t surprised. Although it was only 4, buses usually stopped running around 6 or 7. He had three hours at the most. He didn’t know where this bus would end at but, judging by the demeanor of the driver, Connor didn’t have a good feeling that this guy would take into account that one of his passengers was currently a nineteen year old runaway with no friends to turn to and no real sense of direction.

As the time grew closer to 6, less and less people were on. By 6:40, he was the only one on the bus. Connor kept checking his phone, not because he expected any notifications but because he needed to keep a check on the time. He didn’t know what his plan would be. He could look around to see if there would be any night busses, but it was such a middle-of-nowhere place that he highly doubted it.

At 7:05pm, the bus pulled up to an old gas station and Connor was still surprised to find that it was stopping.

“You’ve gotta get off, kid,” the driver said. 

His heart sunk. “Here?” 

The guy just stared at him. Waiting. The look reminded him of his father, so he was quick to put his backpack over his shoulders and get off the bus. As soon as his feet hit the pavement, the doors shut again. Connor barely had enough time to turn around to watch the bus take off. 

“Great,” he sighed to himself. He was now stranded at a strange, sketchy looking gas station at night in the middle of nowhere. It felt like he was basically set up to get kidnapped or murdered or–

“Hey.”

_ Oh no.  _

Connor whirled around, nearly falling over. His eyes met brown ones that belonged to a boy that appeared to be about his age. The other male stood at a gas pump, one hand in his hoodie pocket and the other holding the gas nozzle up to his car to fill it. 

“Hey, me?” Connor asked dumbly. 

“You’re the only one here,” the brunette shrugged. “Are you, uh- Are you good?”

At least he wasn’t the only one who was sounding dumb. Connor blinked at the other male. “Never been better.”

He seemed to notice that his question was stupid too. “Runaway?” He asked. A beat of silence passed, before he spoke again. “Do you need a ride?”

Connor tightened his grip on his backpack straps, looking over the brunette’s appearance. He wore a pair of jeans and a grey hoodie with the BYU logo on it. His hair looked like it had once been styled nicely, but had gotten slept on and/or blown by the wind. If the situation were different, and if Connor weren’t terrified of the idea of it, he might’ve thought the guy was attractive. But, obviously, he didn’t think that – he was  _ straight _ , after all. Obviously.

“I’m not going to kill you or anything. Saying that probably makes me seem even more suspicious, I guess. I just... figured you’d rather get a ride than hang out here. I mean, it’s too late to get another bus now,” the guy spoke, apparently deciding that Connor’s silence was a decline. He was quiet for a moment then, too, before shrugging, “I’m Kevin.”

“Connor,” he said, still somewhat warily. “Are you sure? About giving me a ride? You know that hitchhiking is just as dangerous, if not  _ more _ dangerous, for the driver as it is the passenger.”

Kevin stared at him for a moment before grinning. “Is that a threat?”

Connor immediately shook his head, raising his hands, “No! I was just saying that-”

“Yes, I’m sure,” the brunette interrupted. He was still wearing that grin. Connor didn’t know whether he found it charming or irritating. “Regardless, my offer still stands. If you want a ride, I’m willing to provide.”

Connor pulled at his backpack straps again. “Where are you going?”   
  
He seemed almost off-put by that question. He shrugged, putting the gas nozzle back and closing his car’s fuel door. “Not sure yet. Wherever you want me to take you, I guess.”

“You’re running away too.”   
  
“I’m  _ moving _ .”

To Connor, it sounded like Kevin was just in denial. It couldn’t really be considered moving if he didn’t know where he was going. He didn’t say that, though. He didn’t want to irritate him and then actually get himself killed, or something - not that be believed Kevin was a murderer, but it was still a chance he didn’t want to bother taking. “I don’t have a direction in mind, either,” he said instead. “I’ve just been letting busses take me wherever they’re going and getting off when it feels right.”

Kevin nodded. “Well, then… Do you want to just ride with me until you see somewhere that’s calling for you?”

Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. “Yeah, okay. Sure. Thank you.”

**\-----**

Was taking a stranger into his car the best idea? No, probably not. But the thing was that Kevin was, generally, a decent person, and this guy didn’t seem like a murderer. He supposed, though, that was how it usually went. He remembered what people would always say on all of those true crime shows that he used to watch.  _ But he seemed so innocent!  _ Though, usually, it seemed like the people who said that were clouded by shock or grief. Kevin just hoped he made the right decision.

They were in the car, now. Connor was quiet, looking out the window and fidgeting with his backpack that he had sat in his lap. Kevin wondered if that’s all he brought. Though, he supposed that he couldn’t bring too much if he was using busses as his main mode of transportation. Kevin would probably throw up if he had to constantly travel by bus. He did not trust them. 

“Do you not have a car?” Kevin asked, out of curiosity. Surely this guy couldn’t be too much younger than him - he probably had a driver’s license and most people he knew that was their age had a car. 

Connor seemed startled by the question. Maybe he was just startled that he’d been spoken to. “No, I do,” he said. He paused for a moment, looking over at Kevin briefly and then turning to look out the window again. “My parents have some kind of device in it that can track it, though. I don’t know where it is so I can’t remove it - and even if I  _ did  _ remove it, they get a notification that it’s been removed.”

Oh. Huh. That wasn’t the answer Kevin had been expecting, though he wasn’t quite sure if he was actually expecting anything anyway. “Is that why you left?”

Connor almost choked. Maybe Kevin was being too blunt. Would it stop him? Probably not. “Uh-” Connor started, “you mean, because of my parents? I mean, I guess so, kinda, but I also just wanted to start over, y’know?”

“Yeah, I get it. That’s why I’m moving, too,” Kevin said. He refused to call himself a runaway. He wasn’t  _ running away _ \- he didn’t have anything in particular that he was running away from, and his parents knew that he was leaving. He was just moving, with no specific location in mind. It was valid. “Starting over’s a lot harder than I expected it to be, though.”

He’d woken up rather late in the day, around noon, and had actually been pretty surprised to not have been killed or robbed or anything. In fact, he, his belongings, and his car had gone completely untouched. Kevin supposed that he’d made a good choice in location to sleep, and made a mental note to keep that in mind for the next time he got tired. Of course, he knew that just because he got lucky once didn’t mean that he would forever be lucky. 

The rest of his day had been spent driving. He stopped at a drive thru a few hours ago, having almost forgotten that food was a necessity, but had been driving non stop otherwise. He was bored. He was lonely. Maybe those two things played a part in why he was so quick to offer Connor a ride.

“Yeah,” Connor agreed, with a small laugh. “But I don’t think I regret it. Not yet, at least.”

“Me neither,” Kevin said. 

It was silent again. Kevin didn’t mind it as much, it didn’t feel quite as awkward as it had at first. Even with the lack of communication, he didn’t feel as lonely. Imagine getting to the point of loneliness to where having a stranger sit silently in your car made you feel better. That made Kevin feel pathetic.

Connor broke the silence after a few more minutes of it. “Did you go to BYU?”

Kevin forgot he was wearing the sweater. “No. My dad ‘gifted’ it to me. It was a not so subtle hint that he and my mom  _ want  _ me to go to BYU, though,” he answered with a shrug. “Did you go? Are you from the area?”

“I haven’t. I planned on it, got accepted and everything, but now I’m here,” Connor shrugged. “I’m from Salt Lake City.”

“Ogden,” Kevin hummed. “I also got accepted. I don’t know that I really want to go, though. Maybe I just won’t go to college at all.”

It was oddly easy to talk to Connor. Kevin didn’t worry about being judged on not wanting to go to college - all of his friends already had their college of choice and was accepted and were months into preparing for it. He wasn’t even close to that, but he lied to everyone he knew about it. He’d be shunned and questioned if he told the truth, and Kevin was so,  _ so  _ tired of questions. 

Connor  _ didn’t  _ judge him. Instead, he nodded, “I mean, there’s lots of careers that don’t require a college degree. I don’t see a need to go through all the stress and anxiety that inevitably comes with college if there’s something else out there that interests you more.”

Kevin chuckled slightly, “Tell that to my parents.”

And he didn’t miss the smile from Connor as he said, “Touché.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took so long :’( i’ve been a little busy and lost writing motivation for a few days. i’m back now though, hopefully this chapter was decent enough to be worth the wait <3


End file.
